This web page is the result of much work on the part of many people. Your webmaster merely typed in the information given him by a group of friends on the internet, all of whom are descendents of two Carson families who first settled in South Carolina after arriving from the British Isles. One family is that of Thomas Carson, Jr., who arrived in Charleston, South Carolina in 1773 with his wife, 6 sons, and a daughter. They had sailed from the port of Newry, County Down, Ireland, and sailed for about 6 weeks. Needless to say, they arrived tired and weary. The other family is that of John Carson Sr., who is believed to have lived in Abbeville County, South Carolina. Very little is known of John Sr., but research on this branch of the family is intense. The two families merged when Joseph Richard Carson, descendent of Thomas Carson Sr. married a daughter of Nathan Franklin Carson, a descendent of John Carson Sr., then a second daughter of Nathan’s when the first died. DNA testing was conducted in 2007 that established conclusively that the two families are kin, probably with Alexander Harvey Carson as the common ancestor. The two men who had their DNA tested were (2115) .William Waller Carson IV (chapter 2) and (478) Alan Barrow Carson (chapter 8).

Shortly after arriving in Charleston, The Thomas Carson family moved on to the South Carolina up-country, and after participating in the Revolution, they received land in Northeastern Georgia, where most of them then moved. Subsequently, they migrated then to Alabama, and one (Joseph Richard) moved on to Brazos County, Texas, where he met the Nathan Franklin family. The John C. Carson family moved to Alabama for the first half of the 19th century, then to Mississippi, and finally on to Texas in the mid 1850′s. Some of the John C. Carson family settled in Leon County, which is adjacent to Brazos County on the north, but the majority lived in or around Bryan, Texas, and took part in the development of the area as well as Texas A & M.

In this saga, every person has received a unique sequential number. When a plus sign (+) is shown before a name, it indicates that there is a subsequent narrative on that person. In the “Cast of Characters”, each person’s number is given, along with the chapter they appear in, which will be in parenthesis. The numbers are permanently assigned, and may not be in a logical sequence, as new family members are constantly being discovered.

A note on sources of material: Sources not listed are censuses, data bases from Ancestry.com or from the Broderbund series of CD’s, or from personal contacts with various interested contributors – which usually are by e-mail.

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Brazos County was originally formed as Navasota County on January 30, 1841, from parts of Robertson and Washington Counties. The names was changed to Brazos County on January 28, 1842
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The following is another version of the Carson saga, as related by William Lee Carson (see “Cast of Characters”). There is a substantial amount of fact in this story, but the relationship to George Washington may be a little exaggerated (opinion of Alan B. Carson, website editor).

The following is quoted verbatim from a document in the possession of Roger N. Carson:

“Statement of William Lee Carson, Flagstaff, AZ, May 1, 1963″

His father was John Wesley Carson born in or near Bryan, Texas, July 19, 1863 and died in Prescot, Arizona March 31, 1961 in his 98th year of age. He writes the story as told to him by his father. The only full name used by his father, was this Grandfather’s name which was John Wesley Carson also.

“I remember hearing my father talk over the years that the Ireland Carson’s were from a kind of Baronage or Nobility, and that George Washington gave them some Negro’s in appreciation for favors they did for him and the Army during the Revolution. They, the Carson’s, and Negro’s seemed to have cleared land for people on down the country from New York to Virginia and to Alabama where they settled for some time. Seems as though my grandfather, James Carson, owned the land that Texas A&M College is on at College Station, Texas.”

THE CARSON STORY AS TOLD BY WILLIAM LEE CARSON

Jack and Mary Carson, both born Carson’s but no blood kin (my father’s great grand parents), came over from Ireland about 12 years before the Revolution, settling in New York. They had three sons, John Wesley, Jack and Mack. George Washington, their first cousin, made their home and estate his headquarters when he would be campaigning in their vicinity during the war. The boys were too young for the army. After the war they moved to Virginia, and on down to Alabama. John Wesley traded property in Mobile, Alabama for land in Texas near Bryan in Brazos County. He and his family, or some of them moved to Texas the year Texas entered the union, by way of Old Indianola, taking their Negroes with them, and settling near Bryan in Brazos County.”

“John Wesley Carson and Jack Carson were Twin Brothers. They married Mary and Molly Henderson, and Mack married a younger sister. (Mary and Molly Henderson were also twins) John Wesley Carson’s sons were Franklin, William, Thomas, James, (My grandfather). Franklin’s sons were Albert–Turk–Tom–and Frank. John Wesley Carson was over 100 years old when he died and is presumably buried in the old Carson Cemetery in or near Bryan. James Carson’s sons were Thomas–William–and John Wesley, my father. His daughters were Betty, Hatty, Emma and Nannie. John Wesley Carson was born in or near Bryan Texas, July 19, 1863, and died in Prescott, AZ, March 31, 1961 and buried there in the Odd Fellows Cemetery. The James Carson’s moved to Leon County and settled between Jewett and Centerville. My father didn’t tell me anything about his uncles, perhaps some of them stayed in Alabama, or went somewhere else.”